My prediction of the next (simple, cheap, useful) breakthrough

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I had a Guitar Building book from Roger Siminoff about 20 years ago where he used T-nuts in the neck.
While the concept may be a good one, it does seem that the T-nuts do take up a fair amount of real estate in the material where they're implimented.

I think a smaller, re-engineered versions is called for, made of titanium or stainless steel, considering that once it's in there, it's never coming out, and that it will remain there under tension likely for many, many years.

I would think that a smaller billet of stainless steel could be tapped, and the anchor could be machine shaped square or triangled, instead of round, then the protruding teeth would not be necessary.  The area of the neck shaft receiving these would be routed to shape (square, triangled) and the additional mass of wood in the neck would sufficiently anchor them.  Heck, you may actually be able to epoxy them in.

 

[Cagey]

I think a smaller, re-engineered versions is called for, made of titanium or stainless steel, considering that once it's in there, it's never coming out, and that it will remain there under tension likely for many, many years.

They have those. They're called "threaded inserts" <grin>

 

[drewfx]

Seems to me that installing T-nuts under the fingerboard would be a fairly heroic solution to a problem that doesn't exist for the vast majority of people who rarely if ever take the neck on and off.

And as (primarily) a bass player playing basses with much more stress on the neck joint than the average guitar, I'm not buying that the standard 4 screws aren't good enough. The idea that adding "more" of something is beneficial once you already have "enough" doesn't apply very often in engineering in the real world.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

One of the things that Skuttlefunk warns about with inserts is that the machine screws thread pitch is less than a wood screw.  So you can crank on them and get a lot more force.  I would guess this is why you can snap an 8-32 and not the corresponding wood screw.
Patrick